The document discusses how many companies are experiencing a "capability recession" due to workforce cuts and reduced training budgets during the economic downturn. This has negatively impacted productivity, engagement, and performance. The document proposes that companies can address this issue by optimizing a blend of formal training, informal learning, and knowledge sharing through social learning. Implementing a social learning environment can help companies reduce training costs, improve return on learning investments, and create a more adaptable workforce. The document provides examples of how BT analyzed performance issues and estimated potential savings of £8 million per year by improving their learning environment through social learning.

1. Outlook
Point of View
April 2009, No. 1
Workforce Performance and Learning
The business case for social learning:
Dealing with the "capability recession" at lower cost
By Eric Davidove and Peter Butler
Eric Davidove, Ph.D., Have you heard of the "capability recession"? For Second, they can improve their return-on-learning
is a senior executive with many organizations, the economic downturn is investment by compressing the time to competence
Accenture Learning BPO
Services.
having a noticeably negative effect on workforce needed by business-critical workforces. Third, they
eric.a.davidove productivity, engagement and performance. Job can create a more nimble workforce, capable of
@accenture.com losses, combined with cutbacks in workforce devel- responding faster to marketplace and customer
opment investments, mean that many companies change.
Peter Butler is head of
are less able to serve customers, make sales or gen-
learning for BT Group.
peter.butler@bt.com erate innovations than they were just a few months Making the business case
ago. In effect, their capabilities are in recession. For a number of years, enterprise learning profes-
sionals have debated the best way to deal with a
One important question for companies suffering perplexing paradox: Most of a typical learning bud-
from such a critical loss of their capabilities is how get is spent on interventions that have the least
to generate better performance from their existing impact on employee knowledge, performance and
workforce. Consider a soccer team forced to cut its productivity. According to several studies, only
practice time by 30 percent and its team roster by about 10 percent of what people know on the job
20 percent. Such a team must do two things: First, was acquired from formal classroom learning expe-
make sure that each practice session is efficient riences—where knowledge retention and transfer
and targeted at the most critical areas of develop- rates are never better than 40 percent. Imagine a
ment; second, enable the remaining team members Las Vegas gambler deliberately placing bets where
to be more versatile—better able to play different the odds of winning are lowest and you begin to
positions and to learn from one another. get the picture.
The answer is not to jettison a company's existing Many of today's employees actually prefer informal
approach to enterprise learning—even one that or on-the-job learning to classroom training; in
relies heavily on more traditional and formal class- some cases, they are demanding it. At leading com-
room learning experiences. The answer is an addi- munications provider BT, for example, where BT and
tive one: Optimize the blend of formal training, Accenture have been collaborating on strategies
informal learning and knowledge-sharing activities and programs to improve the business impact of
that a company makes available to its people. enterprise learning, we recently validated some key
assumptions about learning investments. We found
Effectively improving the social learning environ- that a large percentage of the company's workforce
ment can meet three urgent needs for companies have numerous (and critical) performance needs
striving to stay on the path to high performance that are not being met by formal learning events.
during these challenging economic times. First,
companies can reduce training costs by leveraging BT had been spending about £100 million a year
employees to produce and deliver personalized developing and delivering formal training—learning
learning content that is both relevant and timely. events that research showed was ineffective and

2. that was, according to employees, too expertise and interests. They can then cre- online, participating in a vibrant commu-
rigid, too generic and too far removed from ate and share their knowledge and experi- nity of knowledge sharing.
the realities of their work environment. ence, even search for peer insights, all
organized by user-generated tags and top- Time to competence can be significantly
An analysis of existing performance and ics. People and their content are linked to improved in this environment because
learning environment around BT found one another through team sites, instant learning experiences are tailored to
the following: messaging, blogs and discussion threads. employees' needs. Because content is
Material is also rated by peers during the rated and filtered through those who
• Field engineers were not provided with sharing process according to quality and know best—the users—it is more likely to
the opportunity to learn and develop applicability. produce successful results. Learners are
during down time. driven by personal needs and interests,
• Team leaders independently (and Making it happen resulting in much higher knowledge
unknowingly) conducted redundant Make no mistake: Moving to a more retention and transfer rates.
safety briefings. collaborative learning environment—one
• Sales people wasted days trying to find where a central training organization, Finally, an environment such as
answers, best practices and experts. driven by top-down executive inputs, has Dare2Share has the potential to create a
• Line managers answered the same less control—is a huge cultural shift for culture that is much more active, engaged
questions over and over again. most organizations. Social learning needs and responsive—as long as employees are
• People spent too much time and money to become a formal job responsibility for held accountable for and motivated to
traveling to and from classroom training. some individuals and must be supported network, share and collaborate. For some
by effective rewards and incentives. We forms of basic skills training, classroom or
When we computed the business case—in recommend proceeding on the path to synchronous e-learning experiences are
terms of lost productivity, excess expense social learning in the following way: still cost-effective ways of creating a
and redundant activities—we arrived at a workforce with common skills and expec-
conservative estimate that correcting these • Strategize. Work with senior leadership tations. But in today's marketplace, busi-
situations could save the company at least to conduct a business-case analysis of ness and customer needs are changing too
£8 million per year. In addition, we com- where opportunities exist to improve rapidly. Companies are coping with multi-
piled data from secondary research about employee productivity and performance ple stresses, including workforce reduc-
the improved employee productivity and through an improved learning environ- tions and a capability recession. In that
performance that can result from social ment. State those opportunities explic- environment, companies must have a way
learning, and from more effectively itly in terms of wasted spending as well to leverage the inherent knowledge and
capturing and reusing tacit knowledge. as opportunities to generate better performance power that continuously
business results. resides within their workforce. Social
Clearly, it was worth pursuing a better • Evaluate. An important step for learning is a way to tap into a continuous
learning environment. But what exactly Dare2Share was an "innovation day" source of high performance.
would that learning environment look and where we brought together many of our
feel like? best thinkers and practitioners from BT
and Accenture to review and debate the
A better way merits of various Web 2.0 technologies.
Outlook Point of View
The approach BT and Accenture have The point of review and debate at this
April 2009, No. 1
taken has resulted in something we call stage is not about just the technologies
"Dare2Share." It does not replace the com- but the business and learning needs Copyright © 2009 Accenture
pany's existing learning programs so much those technologies address. All rights reserved.
as augment them with informal learning • Prove. Start with a workable proof-of-
The Outlook Point of View series offers
opportunities and with social, collaborative concept followed by a pilot test involv-
insights about leading trends and
capabilities. ing a representative sample of your
employee population. Test the technolo- innovations across all industries.
From a technology platform perspective, gy, functions, usability, content, learning
David Cudaback, Editor-in-Chief
the approach is equivalent to an enter- networks and rewards programs.
Craig Mindrum, Managing Editor
prisewide YouTube system with a strong • Promote. Use the success of your pilot
Jacqueline H. Kessler, Senior Editor
social dimension. Dare2Share leverages to generate enthusiasm around the rest
Microsoft Sharepoint to enable employees of the organization. Use good marketing For more information on Point of View and
to create, find and view learning segments methods and senior executive sponsor- other Outlook publications, please visit our
(podcasts, documents and links), and also ship to increase awareness and
website: http://www.accenture.com/Outlook
discuss and debate the content being cre- engagement.
ated. Perhaps more important than the • Measure. Monitor usage, gather feed- Accenture, its logo, and High Performance
platform, however, is the attitude and back and measure results, feeding all Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
learning culture that this approach creates that back into subsequent releases of
across the organization. The free-form the social learning solution. This document makes reference to trade-
environment encourages people to experi- marks that may be owned by others. The
ment, innovate, collaborate, communicate Outcomes use of such trademarks herein is not an
and share their experiences and knowledge Social and collaborative environments that assertion of ownership of such trademarks
in engaging ways. This knowledge sharing leverage informal learning and Web 2.0 by Accenture and is not intended to
has a positive impact on how other capabilities can deliver both more efficient represent or imply the existence of an
employees serve customers, find informa- and more effective learning with improved association between Accenture and the
tion or solve problems. impacts on the business. Consider the cost lawful owners of such trademarks.
and time involved to find and bring
All employees have the opportunity within together the right subject matter experts The views and opinions in this article
the learning environment to establish a to create a traditional learning course. should not be viewed as professional
presence or social profile that reflects their Today, those experts can be right there, advice with respect to your business.